Hayward Emmell enlisted with the 7th New Jersey Volunteers on October 1st, 1861 at the age of nineteen. A native of Morristown, NJ, he was mustered on the Morristown Green and spent a three-year term as an infantryman and a stretcher bearer in the Ambulance Corps.

His diary, which chronicles his thirty-six month enlistment in which he partook in the Army of the Potomac Campaign, the Penninsula Campaign, Gettysburg, and the Siege of Petersburg, as well as many skirmishes and sieges, resides with the Madison Historical Society and was transcribed and published by Jim Malcolm. Copies are available here.

After his enlistment expired, Private Emmell returned to Morristown, NJ, where he opened a stationary store. He was an active member of the local GAR (Grand Army of the Republic), a Civil War Veterans organization, and was also a volunteer firefighter. He died at the age of seventy-five on May 21st, 1917, and is buried in the 1st Presbyterian Church on the Morristown Green.